The Importance of Employee Trust

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It might seem like a no-brainer that your employees should have a certain amount of trust in you as both a supervisor and an employer, preferably a significant amount. They should be able to count on you doing what you say you’ll do and know for sure that if they provide honest feedback, you’ll use it to make informed decisions about management and organizational policy. They know that their voices and concerns are heard and valued.  

However, new data from Gartner and the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), the leader in HR credentialing and data, suggests that employees don’t trust their employers. In fact, an enormous 71% don’t trust that their feedback is used correctly, and only 47% were honest on feedback surveys used by their HR departments. The major concern seems to be of retaliation: the organizations did not actually want honest feedback and could punish or ostracize those that have negative things to say about the company or leadership.  

If your employees aren’t open and honest with feedback, that data is automatically skewed and can’t be relied upon. Furthermore, if your employees fear that their feedback is pointless, or even worse that there could be backlash for their honesty, you have much bigger problems than incorrect data. 

 Samantha Rogers, Human Resources Business Director at Skywalk Group, suggests outsourcing the job of gathering feedback data, to ensure it is unbiased and as honest as possible. Employees clearly do not feel comfortable sharing their honest thoughts with a member of their company, so it might be better to have someone outside the organization assist with this. With this approach, employers can receive the raw feedback without needing to or being tempted to know “who said what”; it is a double-blind study.

“Many HR partners, such as Skywalk Group, have secure platforms to collect feedback. As a third party, we then code the data and present the results in a generalized and anonymous way. When participants are told we are being extra careful with their information, and that we don’t even know who gave which feedback, you’re more likely to get genuine, valuable data. 

We also recommend companies have a data security policy in their handbook that outlines who has access to which information, why, and what is done with it. Having a purging schedule for sensitive information, including but not limited to your email storage, is a great way to stay safe and keep client/employee data secure.” 

Once the employee feedback is collected, it’s your responsibility as an employer to act on or address any important topics. If you don’t acknowledge feedback such as complaints, allegations of discrimination or wrongdoing, or even improvement recommendations, any trust you have may quickly diminish with your team. For example, Microsoft emails employee groups letting them know directly what specific actions are being taken based on the feedback provided. 

Providing a summary of the results with the entire company can be a great approach to consider as well. This shows that your organization values transparency and honesty by putting it all out there for your entire company to see. Not all the feedback is going to be positive, which is a good thing! Critical feedback provides direct opportunities for improvement, and publicizing that feedback (only within your company of course) shows your employees that you aren’t ashamed of the areas where you need to improve. In the end, feedback is only as good as what you choose to do with it.  

The basis of employee happiness and engagement at any organization is culture, and an honest and transparent culture starts with honest and unbiased feedback. If you aren’t sure where to start gathering employee feedback, reach out to our HR consulting team today for some guidance. We’ve partnered with many clients in gathering and analyzing their employee data and feedback, as well as drafting and formalizing data security and other important policies. We offer training needs assessments, benefit needs analysis, culture surveys, satisfaction surveys, 360 reviews, and more.

It can seem overwhelming to get started, but gathering this valuable information and deciding how to respond and implement it is the first step in gaining and improving your employees’ trust in your leadership and your organization. 

By Jessica Palmer